Chapter 62 - A full description of the Kali Yuga or the Iron age

In Satya Yuga righteousness consisted in practising meditation and austerities In Treta Yuga it was attained by the acquirement of knowledge and wisdom. In Dvapara it was reached through sacrifices. In Kali Yuga charity is the best way to it.

In the horrible Kali Yuga Vishnu’s complexion will become dark, and people of all castes and creeds will become deceitful. Truth will hardly find elbow room, and men, who will become shortlived, will be devoid of true knowledge and wisdom. Anger and malice will reign supreme, and satisfaction of lust and appetite will be the sole aim of all. People will find pleasure in hating and destroying one another. The high will go down the scale, and the low will rise to eminence. Wife will be the only object of man’s care in this age. Clouds, rivers and lakes will become deficient in their water-supplying power, and cows will fail to yield a full supply of milk. The fructifying power of trees will diminish, and kings will become less charitable. Brahmanas will be deficient in the knowledge of the Vedas, and will earn their living by following, the professions of Kshatriyas and the lower castes. Women will be ill-tempered, disrespectful to their superiors pnd unchaste. Sudras will recite the verses of the sacred scriptures, and become the preceptors of men. They will be the expounders of Puranas, and will even go so far as to teach Grammar to Brahmanas. The result will be that Brahmanas will be guilty of suicide by losing their dignity, and Sudras will pave their way to hell.

Vedic religion and true gods will be forgotten, and new religions will be invented and false gods set up. The sacred scriptures will be held in contempt, and new ones will be concocted and written in the vulgar languages. Vile and covetous men will go about in the disguise of spiritual preceptors, and initiate equally vile and polluted men into the sacred Mantras.

A sect of scripture-haters will come into existence who will call themselves Buddhas. They will find fault with the Puranas and point out discrepancies and incongruities in them. Then Sarasvati, the goddess of learning, will weep for sorrow, and Vishnu and Siva will become incarnate on earth to help her. They will be born as Brahmana preceptors and Sarasvati will be born as Vishnu’s wife. Siva will come down as Sankaracharya and live the life of an ascetic. Both the incarnations of Vishnu and Siva will refute Buddhism by the well established rules of logic (Nyaya) and the Bauddhas will be burnt alive.

Sankaracharya, after exterminating Buddhism, will write many treatises on the Darshanas, and assuming various bodies through his mystic powers, make many other contributions to learning.

But no sooner will Sankaracharya take leave of this earth, than the vile Kali age will regain its strength, and Satvic qualities will be utterly destroyed. Religion will lose its hold on men.

Those who, after hearing the above description of the Kali Yuga, maintain firm faith in Siva and Narayana, will escape its evil effects, and obtain salvation.

In Kali Yuga the local^[1] deities will disappear first, then the river Ganga, and thereafter the Brahmanas with Tulsi^[2] plants and Bel^[2] trees. The Puranas and other scriptures will follow suit. The four castes will also vanish and the Yavanas will gain ascendency. Famines and flood will follow each other in rapid succession. There will be incessant wars causing destruction of lives.

At last Vishnu will incarnate Himslf as Kalki, and, killing all the Mlechchas will disappear, and constant storms and downpours of rain will make the earth so frail that it will be submerged in water.

Thereafter Satya Yuga will commence again, and the whole creation will reassume its pristine noble condition.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

The ghosts and spirits who are peculiar to each village.

[2]:

For the origin of the Tulsi plant and the Bel tree, See Chapters VII and VIII pp 26 et seq. and Chapters IX-XI pp 34 et seq.